The lord chancellor is dismantling the rule of law

Chris Grayling has been caught out again by the high court, this time for trying to protect insurance companies from people who have only a couple of years to live.

Tomorrow he will try to scrap legal protections available to British citizens from the European Convention of Human Rights.

It is a damning charge sheet. What we are witnessing is a full scale assault against the rights of citizens and an attempt to bolster the powers of the state and private companies. And it is being conducted by the lord chancellor himself.

These were the victims he picked: mesothelioma sufferers. People who inhaled asbestos, usually through work. It is a horrible disease. From the point of diagnosis you usually have two years to live. That is why the House of Lords exempted them from the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (Laspo).